[mbwilson111]

I personally love hearing others give their opinions on what the Nighthawks are doing, it goes to show that we all hear differently. For me, I find the Nighthawks immediately remind me of a well treated room with two floor standing speakers toed-in and I'm sitting directly in the sweet-spot!

Yes! ...and I did have a setup like that once upon a time in America although I can't say that I did anything special to treat the room. It was our family living room. My sweet spot was a very comfy recliner chair. I do miss it.

Spoiler: They.sound.exactly.the.same.

Personally I loved mine right out of the box. They reminded me of "home" as described above.

 

[atomd]

So the nightowl is out there and like you are in a gelatin sphere, the nighthawk is more polite.

Sorry that was terrible. I know that sounds weird and probably a silly description. What I mean by polite is maybe more neutral possibly.... not too aggressive in any one way. The opposite of polite to me would be like a headphone that had boomy bass or grating highs, too much of one thing..etc. It's more laid back and balanced...there's nothing in your face about them. I would not call them super neutral but more neutral than the nh.

The whole sphere thing is really hard to describe so that probably makes no sense to people either. I didn't want to say a veiled sound because it's not really veiled exactly. They have this odd thing where it sounds almost like it's in a chamber of some sort. It's not an echo (obviously) but there's something that sounds almost distant at first. They have a very dense, smooth, liquidy type of sound which is why I said gelatin. I know none of this is scientific by any means and I am not good at putting it into words but they are very different...which is probably why they seem to be a love it or hate it type of thing.

 

[nicholars]

I guess you think the Nightowl sounds like a "chamber", is probably just because it is closed? Most closed headphones sound like that? So is the Nightowl the more "polite" or the Nighthawk? I am confused... Which has brighter treble and is the bass much different between them?

I am more interested in the Hawk probably, because I like the idea of open headphones with decent bass, which is something that is quite rare. Do the Hawks have good bass for open headphones? This is something I am always looking for, open dynamic headphones that actually have good bass.

 

[Kammerat Rebekka]

The bass on the bird is clean, detailed and goes about as low as your ears go, subbass aplentiful.
The bass was the first thing that wow’ed me about the Nighthawk.

 

[340519]

I have a couple of open back headphones now, and am interested in audioquest's stuff,after owning their wire in the past. Which closed back model do you all recommend? I'd like some solid bass.

 

[Kammerat Rebekka]

They only make two headphones
The Nighthawk and the closed one, the Nightowl.

 

[CaptainFantastic]

They make two
The Nighthawk and the closed one, the Nightowl.

They made two. They are discontinued as we all know.

 

[Kammerat Rebekka]

Damn...

 

[340519]

They only make two headphones
The Nighthawk and the closed one, the Nightowl.

Well okay that makes it easy lol.

 

[Bern2]

Yes! ...and I did have a setup like that once upon a time in America although I can't say that I did anything special to treat the room. It was our family living room. My sweet spot was a very comfy recliner chair. I do miss it.

.

This describes me as well. Because of circumstances..(wife is bed/wheelchair all the time) I had to switch from speakers to headphones. Of all my headphones..the NightHawk is the one that reminds me of the speaker experience. (some old Polk 5B's with a sub attached).

Bern

 

[atomd]

I guess you think the Nightowl sounds like a "chamber", is probably just because it is closed? Most closed headphones sound like that? So is the Nightowl the more "polite" or the Nighthawk? I am confused... Which has brighter treble and is the bass much different between them?

I am more interested in the Hawk probably, because I like the idea of open headphones with decent bass, which is something that is quite rare. Do the Hawks have good bass for open headphones? This is something I am always looking for, open dynamic headphones that actually have good bass.

The hawk definitely has more bass. Plenty of it. The bass in the owl is less but tighter and seems a bit more detailed. The mids on the owl are more up front. I called the owl polite because the hawk has a more bass impact and the mids are a bit more recessed. They both have that sound to me that I had trouble describing. When you hear people say the hawk is "unique", that could possibly be what they are hearing...who knows. The hawk is a good one to purchase because you won't have other headphones in your collection that will sound similar. The owl has some of that uniqueness but a bit less so. I like them both though. If you like the bass the hawk is the way to go. The prices are great now that they are discontinued too.

 

[volly]

Roachford - Permanent Shade of blue (An oldie but a goodie!)

Kids at school, wife out of the house, rocking to this album with the NH's with Bifrost/Asgard - So satisfying, so groovy and the mood is gawd!


By the way, this setup is a sleeper hit, clean/clear DAC and an underrated Class A amp! Big, smooth and musical, the Nighthawk's take flight!

 

[Hi-Fi EDU]

Like some of my fellow brethren & sistas on here, I also unexpectedly decided to pull the trigger on a second, "back-up" pair of these beautiful birds. Owning the wood version, I went with the NH Carbon this time. How Lucky! I figure this will not only mean I have all the pads at my disposal, but also spare parts, especially the headband which is going slack on my woods after 3 years of plenty use. Most of all, I'm now more at peace with this whole unfortunate discontinuation. Do your worst!

 

[groucho69]

Hawk music

 

[CaptainFantastic]

More Hawk/Owl music:

Track: De Ushuaia a la Quiaca
Album: Qhapaq Ñan
Artist: Gustavo Santaolalla